Paid subscription for scifi short films and serialized shows

This thread is a general thread for paid subscription to watch scifi shorts or possibly serialized stories.

It could be from mainstream services with an extra fee like a premium channel say from Netflix or Hulu Plus, Vimeo, YouTube, or Machinima.

For example Ridley Scott will produce scifi shorts for machinima

A recent Wall Street Journal article featuring an interview with YouTube VP Robert Kyncl has several insights about the site’s upcoming paid subscription feature, but the most interesting note in the article has nothing to do with Kyncl. A “person familiar with the initiative” has claimed that Ridley Scott‘s upcoming series of 12 sci-fi shorts on the Machinima network will be one of the first pay-to-view options on the site.

If true, the paid nature of Scott’s channel will be an interesting test of the viability of such a model on YouTube. Paid subscription video channels have rarely worked, and it’s tough to see how many people will utilize them on YouTube, where a bevy of free alternatives are always readily available. On the other hand, Scott’s content will be about as desirable as possible, with several big name directors (like Kathryn Bigelow and Martin Scorsese) rumored to be involved. If the sci-fi short films don’t sell, nothing will.

Paid channels are absolutely coming, if a line of code in the YouTube mobile app is to be believed, and Scott’s crown jewel will be a very informative experiment when it finally hits its monetized YouTube home.

So no no a big brand like Trek but smaller episodic scifi could takeoff with paid subscriptions. Sort of like a premium scifi cable channel. If they did a space opera with green screen like Blood & Chrome what would it cost to produce?

I would be willing to pay a subscription of $3./month to start for scifi shorts with a certain production value including shot on DSLR or HD large sensor cameras, sound design, 2.0 stereo sound mix .

Cancel your cable and encourage them to move faster towards an al la carte online subscription option. I can't wait until I can boot up my web browser or iTV or Roku and scroll through my "channels." No more buying 156 channels I'll never watch to get the 8 I actually want. A $8 sub for netflix, $8 for Hulu Plus, plus a few more wheneven HBO and Showtime, etc. and the cable companies realize they cant run on their wacky subsidizing model forever. Just think about being able to just order the science and history channels as a package without having to also pay for the 'lifestyle' and 'womens' networks too. The future looks bright, we just have to wait a few more years.

The BBC has confirmed that it will broadcast six short films exclusively on iPlayer over the next two years, becoming the latest media outlet to debut original content on its online video streaming service. The BBC says that the dramas will feature "up and coming talent" that is linked to the BBC Three brand, providing UK license-fee payers with the opportunity to watch content in their own time or on the move.

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This shows yet another major player showing commissioned short films as original content on a streaming-only service and not on a linear channel. No not just short films picked up like IFC has done for over a decade but commissioned short films.

It's almost certain that the BBC will use its broadcast channels to promote and advertise its online-only content, giving its new content every chance of succeeding in an online-only environment.

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And this is what it will probably take: support from some owned linear TV channels for promotion. The chicken before the egg is why would a company that owns linear channels want to drive people towards online-only streaming/downloads? It depends on how many eyeballs are there and cut the cord to cable with linear channels...BBC to debut six iPlayer-exclusive short filmsvia

I guess it depends what they mean by short content. I don't think five minute webisodes or whatever are ever going to take the world by storm. They need to move beyond cheapo green screen stuff with questionable acting.

I guess it's a catch-22, how to produce that stuff without $$$, how to get $$$ without producing stuff.

I have 300+ titles in my queue and I'm adding them faster than I can watch them. It would take something pretty frakking spectacular to get me to pay for content any other way.

A legit live-action Star Trek series for instance. Maybe Star Wars or B5. But stuff like that, I'd expect Netflix to get their paws on sooner or later.

I'd watch short films if they were on Netflix streaming and I had some reason to believe they were worth my while, but that's not my preferred format. I like stuff that's really worth my while, and promises a lot of content - several season's worth.

That's because the big "cost" to me is in my initial investment of time. I'm drowning in content, so I like to feel like bothering to spend the first five minutes with something will lead to more stuff that's worth five more minutes, and five more, etc. more than whatever else I could be watching instead.

I can't wait until I can boot up my web browser or iTV or Roku and scroll through my "channels."

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Why wait, do it now. I do. There's just one channel on my Roku that I ever bother with (other than Pandora for music) but they seem to get a lot of cool shows like The Walking Dead, Parks & Recreation and Arrested Development.

The fact that they all came from different corporations matters no more to me than the fact that the groceries on the supermarket shelves come from different sources. Just show me everything at once and let me decide.

“Maybe HBO Go, with our broadband partners, could evolve”, HBO CEO Richard Plepler told Reuters after the Season 3 premiere of Game Of Thrones. HBO launched HBO GO in 2010 to let cable HBO subscribers view shows on Internet devices such as iPads or Android tablets.

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"Maybe"? More like definitely. But it will take a while so in the meantime I'll keep getting DVDs from Netflix in addition to streaming. I'm confident the corporations will catch up to me sooner or later.

YouTube is prepping to launch paid subscriptions for individual channels on its video platform in its latest attempt to lure content producers, eyeballs, and advertiser dollars away from traditional TV, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.

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YouTube is treating paid subscriptions as an experiment.

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Hopefully at least one paid sci-fi channel.

It's not clear which channels will be part of the first paid-subscription rollout, but it is believed that YouTube will lean on the media companies that have already shown the ability to develop large followings on the video platform, including networks like Machinima, Maker Studios and Fullscreen.

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I think the Machinima is the paid channel that will be carrying the Ridley Scott series.

YouTube has reached out to a small group of channel producers and asked them to submit applications to create channels that users would have to pay to access. As of now it appears that the first paid channels will cost somewhere between $1 and $5 a month, two of these people said. In addition to episodic content, YouTube is also considering charging for content libraries and access to live events, a la pay-per-view, as well as self-help or financial advice shows.

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Partners will also have the option to include ads in their pay channels, but its unclear what form those will take.

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Wow a slippery slope. watching one 30 second ad when viewing with a web browser is irritating to me.

the channels could be introduced to the public at the Digital Content New Fronts in late April,

Participant Media on Wednesday announced the name of its upcoming cable network targeting millennials: pivot. The network, forged from Participant Media's purchase of The Documentary Channel and acquisition of the distribution assets of Halogen TV from The Inspiration Networks, will launch in 40 million households on Aug. 1.

The network is embracing a nontraditional distribution model, rolling out across over-the-top platforms as well as conventional satellite (and presumably cable) systems. If subscribers don't receive the network via cable subscriptions, they can buy it over the web a la Netflix for a fee paid directly to Pivot (no fee structure was disclosed at the announcement).